Tuesday, October 5, 2010
GÃœL DEMİR and NİKİ GAMM
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
The Aga Khan calligraphy collection is becoming renowned around the world after much of it has traveled to various museums throughout Europe. The collection is currently being exhibited at Istanbul’s highly regarded Sakıp Sabancı Museum, with the show 'Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Arts of the Book and Calligraphy in the Islamic World' bringing together examples of the written word on a variety of objects. The Aga Khan believes such exhibitions foster recognition and tolerance
Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum, one of the most respected museums in Turkey, recently announced that it is set to exhibit one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of the art and paraphernalia of Islamic calligraphy.
The museum announced through its website that the exhibition, running from Nov. 5 until Feb. 27 will show a collection it is calling “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Arts of the Book and Calligraphy in the Islamic World.â€
While the exhibition is being held as part of Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture festivities, it is the first time since 2007 that it will be shown in near entirety, with artifacts of the history of the written word “on a variety of objects (ceramics, wood, metalwork, textiles, etc.) with their counterparts on parchment and paper artifacts on display,†rather than a mere general presentation of “highlights†from the collection, according to the announcement.
“The exhibition aims to show how the art of the book - in calligraphy, illumination and illustration - evolved over time in the Islamic world,†the announcement said.
Few people know of the Aga Khan’s collections. In Turkey for example, the Aga Khan – which is the hereditary title of the Imam of the largest branch of the Ismaili followers of the Shia faith – is primarily known for the architectural prizes it has conferred on various projects here, including Ertegün House in Bodrum, the Nail Çakırhan House in Akyaka and this year possibly the İpekyolu Textile Factory in Edirne.
However, the Aga Khan’s calligraphy collection is becoming more renowned as parts of it have traveled to various museums throughout Europe since 2007, while a large portion of the collection is usually housed at the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London.
The Institute's Library has an important and significant collection of Islamic manuscripts, consisting of over 1,700 volumes. Besides a small nucleus of manuscripts that contain the text of the Quran, the scope of this collection encompasses a variety of subjects, including scholarly works on jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, logic, grammar, medicine, astronomy and alchemy, and non-theoretical works of poetry and biography.
The beginnings of this collection go back to the 1930s and 1940s when the Russian scholar and pioneer of modern Ismaili studies, Vladimir Ivanow, together with other Ismaili scholars, gathered a large number of manuscripts for The Ismaili Society in Bombay. These acquisitions provided the basis for the Institute’s own collection, which over the past decade has grown considerably thanks to contributions from private collections.
Museum collection
The museum collection, which comprises some 1,000 pieces, includes several superb examples of Quran manuscripts that demonstrate the variety of script, media and decorative styles that evolved in the Muslim world. Among them, an eighth century North African folio demonstrates the earliest style of kufic script written on parchment. A page from the well known Blue Quran provides an example of gold kufic script on indigo-dyed parchment. The Blue Quran is considered one of the most extraordinary Quran manuscripts ever created, the origins of which are ninth or tenth century North African, likely created for the Fatimid caliphs.
To date, major exhibitions have taken place in Parma, London, Paris, Lisbon, Toledo, Madrid, Barcelona and Berlin. Over the next two years, further exhibitions are envisaged in Istanbul and five other cities in the Muslim world. By 2012, these exhibitions will have been seen by nearly one and a half million people and will have created a framework for cooperation and collaboration with museums and institutions throughout the world.
Museum does not exist
The Aga Khan Museum ironically doesn’t exist yet. It is being built in Toronto, Canada and is expected to be completed in 2013. Why Toronto? According to the current Aga Khan’s brother, Prince Amyn, “Toronto – and indeed North America – has become home to a growing Muslim community, whose diversity is reflective of the broad plurality of traditions, interpretations and cultures that constitute the ummah [or world of Islam]. The cosmopolitan ethic of Toronto and Canada’s pluralist values provide a suitable backdrop for the new museum and its collection.â€
“Like the caravans that crisscrossed the Silk Road centuries ago, museums and their collections have become crucibles of cross-cultural dialogue that can create greater understanding among peoples. In showcasing the artifacts of the Muslim world, the Aga Khan Museum will foster a greater appreciation of our collective human heritage and shared history,†he said.
The new museum will be dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, display and interpretation of artifacts relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious traditions of Muslim communities, past and present. Artifacts will include ceramics, metalwork, and paintings covering all periods of Islamic history.
Manuscripts in the collection will include the earliest known copy of Avicenna’s “Qanun fi’l-Tibb†(“The Canon of Medicineâ€) dating from 1052. A music program is also planned to feature in the collection’s permanent display, which will work to expand knowledge of the traditional music of Asia and the Islamic world as well as its contemporary expression.
The museum will become a repository of historical materials related to the Ismaili community and house research programs related to each one of the aspects of its institutional mission. It will also provide a space for permanent exchanges between the Islamic and Western worlds on educational, cultural and socioeconomic issues.
Islam according to the Imam of the Shia faith
The Aga Khan has pointed out that over the centuries, Islam has embraced many civilizations and is by nature pluralistic. The Aga Khan collection therefore aims to exhibit objects from every region and period, created from every kind of material in the Muslim world. The collection seeks to demonstrate the openness of Muslim civilizations to every aspect of human life, even going so far as to work in partnership with intellectual and artistic sources originating in other cultural matrices.
According to the current Aga Khan, Shah Karim al-Hussayni, there are two main tendencies, traditional and modern, trying to maintain, indeed develop, Islamic legitimacy. “For the populations of the Ummah, loss of identity is an unquestionable reality, as it is for all societies. Perhaps one of the keys for the Muslim world will be to perpetuate their cultures in the modern world by means of rediscovered ancient and newly inspired sources. The Muslim world’s two main tendencies, traditional and modern, will both have a role to play but if one attempts to achieve exclusivity at the expense of the other, the consequences will be predictable and highly damaging,†he said at the closing address of an exhibition at Paris’ Louvre Museum in Oct., 2007.
The Sakıp Sabancı exhibition is a keenly anticipated event, and will also no doubt be bolstered by the museum’s own extensive calligraphic collection. The Aga Khan collection will be on exhibition until Feb. 27, 2011.